Obama To Appear On Mythbusters For A ‘Viewer’s Challenge’

President Obama discussing his appearance on the upcoming episode of "Mythbusters" with co-hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Sawage

President Barack Obama has never been shy about his use of television and social media to reach his younger audience. Tonight, Obama will be appearing on Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters,” for a ‘viewers challenge’ special about Archimedes’ legendary solar ray, an experiment that has been attempted and failed two previous times on the show. The Los Angeles Times reports:

On Wednesday, Barack Obama, the president of the United States, will appear on “Mythbusters,” the long-running Discovery Channel series that tests the truth of common wisdom, received notions, popular legends and stuff you see in the movies. On a more basic level, it is a show about building and blowing things up, and that, as the president himself will say here, “is always cool.”

Obama has been criticized at times for the seeming alacrity with which he will go on television, any old television, but his trip to a comical basic-cable series is not without presidential precedent. George W. Bush caught a four-pound bass on the Outdoor Life Network’s “Fishing With Roland Martin” and appeared, via tape, on the NBCgame show“Deal or No Deal” to wish a decorated soldier luck and knock out a couple of one-liners. (“I’m thrilled to be on ‘Deal or No Deal’ with you tonight. Come to think of it, I’m thrilled to be anywhere with high ratings these days.”) Gerald Ford beamed in to “Saturday Night Live” to demonstrate that he could take, and make, a joke. Bill Clinton, who has just filmed a cameo for, jeepers, ” The Hangover 2,” went on MTV to reveal the nature of his undershorts — not all he said, but all that anyone recalls